Bucarest B-EST's blog

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, director Paolo Sorrentino’s first English language film (awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes 2008, for Il Divo), will be presented, in absolute premiere and exclusively in Romania, within the Bucharest International Film Festival Closing Gala, March 25, 2012. "Anchored" by Sean Penn’s unbelievable performance ("flawless…transcending the masklike qualities of eyeliner and lipstick with deadpan, childlike candor." - Variety), THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is the story of an ex-rock star engaged in a Nazi-hunt across America. A possible future cult film – the title is inspired by a classic Talking Heads track, music written by David Byrne, featuring Frances McDormand, Harry Dean Stanton, Judd Hirsch in supporting roles and, obviously, David Byrne – the ultra-stylized THIS MUST BE THE PLACE was launched within the Cannes 2011 Official Competition and is one of those films which cannot be categorized, that divides the public into two teams, but leaves no one indifferent.

In addition to previously announced films WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, THE MURDERER, LES GEANTS and RED STATE, more of recent cinema’s resonating titles, signed by some of the world’s most appreciated directors, shall be screened within Bucharest IFF 2012: THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, the story of a group of British retirees who decide to live, for the remainder of their lives, in less expensive and apparently exotic India, a film directed by John Madden, starring veterans Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson in delicious roles; BURNT BY THE SUN 3, the third (and final) part of colonel Kotov’s fascinating saga, the revolutionary hero played by the film’s author, Nikita Mihalkov; DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, launched within the Venice 2010 official competition, with an "electric" Andy Lau in the leading part and directed by Tsui Hark, uncrowned king of made-in-Hong Kong action cinema; HANEZU, a new poem-of-a-film written and directed by a Cannes favorite, Japanese Naomi Kawase; HEADHUNTERS, presented in Piazza Grande at Locarno 2011, an very funny and very bloody thriller, directed by present day’s most popular Norwegian director, Morten Tydlum; LOS OJOS DE JULIA, a horror flick faithful to the style that Spanish cineastes  are known for, with Belen Rueda in a part which recalls his interpretation in Orphanage – a film by a most promising Spanish director, Guillem Morales, and produced by Guillermo del Toro